Robert Perry (1)

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2635668.html

A Seventh Doctor novel published in 1997, featuring Ace and Cybermen in wartime 1940s London; grittily imagined, with good characterisation; one of the better Past Doctor Adventures that I have read. It shares certain resonances with The Doctor Dances / The Empty Child, but is really very true to the spirit of McCoy era Who, to the point that I wondered if it could have been a script in its own right.

As indeed, apparently, it was - submitted for the show more 1990 season that was never made. show less

This is a Doctor Who spin-off novel featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace (Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred on TV) set in 1940, the second such spin-off novel I've read in the last month set during the Second World War. A mysteriously advanced bomb crashes on London during the Blitz. It is of course an alien artifact, produced by the Doctor's old enemies, the Cybermen. There are also Nazis, double agents and misguided British loyalists in the picture, all trying to use cyber-technology to show more create battle armour to gain an advantage for their respective sides in the global conflict. There are some shocking and grotesque set piece scenes of cyber-conversion that could never have been shown on screen (the authors originally submitted this as a script for a TV story, but this was frustrated when the series was sadly cancelled in 1990). I thought the two leads came over very well here, particularly Ace, and I could easily visualise a TV version of this story in my mind's eye. That said, in places it feels quite similar to the McCoy TV story Silver Nemesis and there was also another McCoy story set in the Second World War, The Curse of Fenric, so maybe this would not have worked in practice. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1822726.html

A Seventh Doctor novel set between Survival and the start of the New Adventures, following sequentially from Matrix by the same authors. Having just listened to the Big Finish "Lost Stories" set in the same chronological gap, I am struck by how much better both this book and its predecessor are. From the story point of view, it is a basic alien invasion of a future human colony; but there is a lot of very pleasing homage to hard sf classics, show more particularly the intelligent dolphins of David Brin's Uplift series, and monsters reminiscent of the various works of Larry Niven. Ace, as sole companion, gets some very decent character development setting her up for the more mature arc of the New Adventures; Perry and Tucker remind us that she has already been travelling with the Doctor for three years by this point. So, rather a good one. show less

A WW2 story for the Seventh Doctor and Ace that showcases the true horror of the Cybermen. It also demonstrates Seven's dark, manipulative side rather well.